Retailers of goods and services typically offer such goods and services for purchase via one or more conventional brick-and-mortar retail stores. Such brick-and-mortar stores typically include at least one point-of-sale system, and many brick-and-mortar stores include several point-of-sale systems grouped together in a so-called “checkout” area. The one or more point-of-sale systems may be or include one or more self-checkout point-of-sale systems and/or one or more employee-operated point-of-sale systems. In any case, each such point-of-sale system further typically defines a “checkout queue” or “checkout lane” through which customers pass when making purchases at the point-of-sale system.
When any such point-of-sale system is available to process a purchase transaction, a customer typically advances into the checkout lane or queue of the point-of-sale system and presents one or more items for purchase, and the point-of-sale system is then operated in a conventional manner to process the purchase transaction. When a point-of-sale system is currently busy processing a purchase transaction, customers wishing to conduct a purchase transaction at the point-of-sale system typically wait in the checkout lane or queue for the point-of-sale system to become available to process their purchase transaction. At any one time, the checkout lane or queue of any such point-of-sale system may be open and the point-of-sale system available to process a purchase transaction, or be populated by one or more customers currently conducting a purchase transaction or awaiting availability of the point-of-sale system to conduct a purchase transaction.